Posts made in February, 2019

on Feb 19, 2019

By Alex Lubar I’m going to ask you to do the unfathomable and set all thoughts of Brexit aside for just a moment. Suspend your disbelief that despite its state of polarization and socio-economic and political uncertainty, Britain is actually grappling with some other fundamental truths. From abandoning our curtain-twitching obsession with privacy, to our fixation with sustainability and fear of tipping into the “uncanny valley” where robots are stealing our jobs. In our latest study on The Truth About Britain informed from McCann Worldgroup’s proprietary global insights team – Truth Central – we discovered some of the following truths for the Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Feb 19, 2019

By Danielle Long Zara is the latest fashion brand to be labelled racist by Chinese Internet users after its ad was accused of ‘uglifying China’. The ad, which was posted on Zara’s Weibo account, featured Chinese model Li Jingwen and was promoting a new lipstick range by the Spanish fashion retailer. The ad depicted Jingwen with her freckles showing and minimal make-up in a move with angered Chinese followers. Critics have labeled the ad humiliating to Chinese women and claim the brand is defaming Chinese beauty. Chinese women favour clear pale skin as a beauty look and most beauty advertising reinforces this look. Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Feb 19, 2019

By Danielle Long An AI bot that can predict when wickets will fall in a game of cricket, has delivered a double-digit increase in weekly sales growth for Foxtel. Monty, a cricket-mad custom machine learning model, was designed in collaboration by Foxtel, Fox Sports, Google and Mindshare, in a bid to identify and predict how and when wickets would fall in real time during live games. Featuring a bespoke ‘Wicket Warning’ system, Monty can spot an approaching wicket up to 5 minutes before it falls and alert viewers and cricket fans to watch the coverage live. The alerts are delivered via dynamic display, pre-roll and Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Feb 18, 2019

By Richard Burton We’ve seen a major shift in the perception of employee engagement from what was once an HR ‘nice-to-have’ to a fundamental driver of business success. But engaging with a modern workforce, with its new cultural values, diverse experiences and shifting expectations is a major challenge for any organisation. No matter how cool the technology, how bold the campaign or how revolutionary the HR process, sustainable engagement only happens when a business delivers on the three key elements of the employee experience: a great story compellingly told; inspired leadership; and memorable moments that reinforce the promise made to the team. Leadership is fundamental to Read full story › Source: The Drum...

on Feb 18, 2019

By Zaid Al-Zaidy Figures from the Advertising Association‘s Lead conference recently made for rather chilling reading, with advertising’s public favourability standing at a record low of just 25%. The reasons for this are more complex than an increase in the amount of “bad” advertising. While favourability levels may have nearly halved since 1992, this was a time when multichannel TV was still in its infancy, Channel 5 hadn’t launched and Mark Zuckerberg was still learning how to use Atari Basic programming. Since then, the number of media channels has proliferated beyond recognition so it’s little wonder that consumers now feel bombarded, with advertising Read full story › Source: The Drum...